As for Cheri’s involvement, “I signed my maiden name [on the checks] to keep it from the campaign and Andrew’s association,” she said.

Hunter would use the cash to pay her California “spiritual adviser” for consultations — at $8,000 and $1,000 a pop, Cheri said.

The loopy Hunter once even consulted her guru simply because a waiter brought the wrong kind of dressing for her reuben sandwich, Cheri said.

Cheri said she personally asked Edwards if what she was doing was legal.

“I heard Mr. John Edwards tell me on the phone he checked with campaign-finance lawyers and it was legal,’’ she said, adding that he then chided her, “ ‘Get the money in!’ He was very short and very angry,”

Then, in early 2008, as Hunter was about to give birth to Edwards’s love child, a new demand was made on the Youngs.

Edwards wanted Andrew Young to claim paternity to fool the public.

“The first thought in my mind was, how in the world could Mr. Edwards ask one more thing of me, of us?” Cheri Young said.

“Then [Edwards] said, ‘It’s a one-day story if you take responsibility. Who cares about a few campaign staffers having an affair?’ ” she said.

At one point, Young became so emotional while testifying that the jury was excused to give her time to compose herself. Edwards sat at the defense table looking at his watch.